Psychology 1

Psychology 1

PsychologyPsychology encompasses a range of phenomena and levels of analysisin pursuit of three goals: to deepen understanding of cognitive and neuralmechanisms of sensation, perception, learning, and emotion; to probethe biological and evolutionary foundations of animal behavior; and toclarify the social perception and assessment of individuals and groups.The concentration offers an array of course options, including studyin quantitative methods, laboratory techniques, and senior seminarson specialized topics. Students take upper-level courses in the field’smajor sub-disciplines, including perception and cognition, behavioralneuroscience, and social psychology. The concentration in Psychologyprepares students for careers in clinical psychology, business, policy-related research positions, law, and education.

The A.B. concentration requires 12 courses. The Sc.B concentrationadditionally requires 1 laboratory course and 4 approved science courses,totaling to a total of 17 required courses.

Common CoreThe introductory course, “CLPS 0010 Mind, Brain, and Behavior,”surveys the broad territory of the scientific study of the mind, as uniquelyrepresented by our department. The course maps the breadth of thescience of the mind, focusing on fascinating questions, garnered insights,common commitments, and successful techniques and approaches. Thecourse could be taken by students interested in the CLPS concentrationsor as an introduction at the beginning of one’s college career or as anintegration after having completed a number of specialized courses in aparticular concentration.

Careers in Psychology and related fields requires familiarity with statistics. Therefore, the Psychology concentration requires a course in QuantitativeMethods (CLPS 0900). CLPS 0900 is a prerequisite for most of thelaboratory courses, so concentrators should plan to take this course bytheir fourth semester. The department does not grant concentrationcredit of AP Statistics, regardless of score. Students who feel thatCLPS 0900 is too elementary can complete an approved alternativecourse (e.g.,APMA 1650,CLPS 2906).

Foundation

To provide students with a solid foundation of knowledge in their area ofconcentration and to minimize redundancy, the Psychology concentrationrequires four foundation courses in Social/Personality, Perception/Cognition, Development, and Learning/Animal Behavior/BehavioralNeuroscience.

Electives

Each concentrator will take four additional courses that allow the studentto go into depth in some of the relevant topics. These electives mustinclude at least two courses in one of the four foundation topics (i.e.,Social/Personality, Perception/Cognition, Development, and Learning/Animal Behavior/Behavioral Neuroscience). The courses designed tocount as electives will often have foundation courses as prerequisites andmay include laboratory courses, content courses, or seminars.

Research Methods and CapstoneAnother element in the Psychology concentration is a research methodscourse that builds on the introductory statistics course (which will bea prerequisite) but exposes students to a variety of topics in researchof the mind: to empirical methods (e.g., surveys, chronometry, eyetracking, brain imaging), to common designs (e.g., factorial experimental,correlational, longitudinal), to research ethics, and to best practices ofliterature review. Concentrators will additionally take either a seminarcourse or an independent research course to serve as their capstoneexperience.

Additional requirements for Sc.B.In line with university expectations, the Sc.B. requirements include agreater number of courses and especially science courses. The definitionof “science” is flexible. A good number of these courses will be outside ofCLPS, but several CLPS courses might fit into a coherent package as well.

In addition, the Sc.B. degree also requires a lab course to provide thesestudents with in-depth exposure to research methods in a particular areaof the science of the mind.

Honors RequirementThe Research Methods course will serve as a requirement for admissionto the Honors program in Cognitive Science, Cognitive Neuroscience, andPsychology. Previously, any lab course served as this requirement. Thispractice not only demanded a large number of lab courses as part of theCLPS curriculum but also suffered from frequent mismatches between thetype of research the student wished to pursue and the type of lab courseavailable in the relevant semesters. A more general research methodscourse is likely to prepare students better and more broadly than anysingle lab course can.

FOR DETAILED UPDATES, PLEASE REFER TO THE COGNITIVE,LINGUISTIC, AND PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCES (CLPS)UNDERGRADUATE PAGE.

Requirements for the A.B. degreeSTANDARD PROGRAM FOR THE A.B. DEGREE 1

CLPS 0010 Mind, Brain, and Behavior 1CLPS 0900 Statistical Methods 1One approved course in Social/Personality, such as: 1

CLPS 0700 Social PsychologyCLPS 0701 PersonalityCLPS 1700 Abnormal Psychology

One approved course in Perception/Cognition: 1CLPS 0200 Human CognitionCLPS 0220 Making DecisionsCLPS 0500 Perception and Mind

One approved course in Development, such as: 1CLPS 0600 Developmental PsychologyCLPS 0610 Children's Thinking: The Nature of

Cognitive DevelopmentOne approved course in Learning/Animal Behavior/BehavioralNeuroscience, such as:

1

CLPS 0100 Learning and ConditioningCLPS 0110 Animal Behavior

Four Approved Electives related to Psychology, such as: 4BIOL 0480 Evolutionary BiologyCLPS 1100 Animal CognitionCLPS 1150 Memory and the BrainCLPS 1200 ThinkingCLPS 1480B Cognitive Aging and DementiaCLPS 1500 Perception and ActionCLPS 1510 Auditory Perception LaboratoryCLPS 1610 Cognitive DevelopmentCLPS 1650 Child Language AcquisitionCLPS 1720 Human ResilienceCLPS 1730 Psychology in Business and EconomicsCLPS 1820 Language and the BrainEDUC 1260 Emotion, Cognition, EducationPHIL 1770 Philosophy of Mind

One Independent Study or Approved Seminar, such as: 1CLPS 1400 The Neural Bases of CognitionCLPS 1480B Cognitive Aging and DementiaCLPS 1480C Cognitive Control Functions of the

Prefrontal CortexCLPS 1470 Mechanisms of Motivated Decision

MakingCLPS 1495 Affective Neuroscience

2 Psychology

2 Psychology

CLPS 1560 Visually-Guided Action and CognitiveProcesses

CLPS 1781 Thinking about the Social WorldCLPS 1783 Nudge: Social Psychology for Social

ChangeCLPS 1900 Research Design and Methods 1

Total Credits 12

Requirements Specific for the Sc.B. degreeSTANDARD PROGRAM FOR THE Sc.B. DEGREE 1

CLPS 0010 Mind, Brain, and Behavior 1CLPS 0900 Statistical Methods 1One approved course in Social/Personality, such as: 1

CLPS 0700 Social PsychologyCLPS 0701 PersonalityCLPS 1700 Abnormal Psychology

One approved course in Perception/Cognition, such as: 1CLPS 0200 Human CognitionCLPS 0220 Making DecisionsCLPS 0500 Perception and Mind

One approved course in Development, such as: 1CLPS 0600 Developmental PsychologyCLPS 0610 Children's Thinking: The Nature of

Cognitive DevelopmentOne approved course in Learning/Animal Behavior/BehavioralNeuroscience, such as:

1

CLPS 0100 Learning and ConditioningCLPS 0110 Animal Behavior

Four Approved Electives, such as: 4BIOL 0480 Evolutionary BiologyCLPS 1100 Animal CognitionCLPS 1150 Memory and the BrainCLPS 1200 ThinkingCLPS 1480B Cognitive Aging and DementiaCLPS 1500 Perception and ActionCLPS 1510 Auditory Perception LaboratoryCLPS 1650 Child Language AcquisitionCLPS 1720 Human ResilienceCLPS 1730 Psychology in Business and EconomicsCLPS 1820 Language and the BrainEDUC 1260 Emotion, Cognition, EducationPHIL 1770 Philosophy of Mind

One Independent Study or Approved Seminar, such as: 1CLPS 1400 The Neural Bases of CognitionCLPS 1480B Cognitive Aging and DementiaCLPS 1480C Cognitive Control Functions of the

Prefrontal CortexCLPS 1470 Mechanisms of Motivated Decision

MakingCLPS 1495 Affective NeuroscienceCLPS 1560 Visually-Guided Action and Cognitive

ProcessesCLPS 1781 Thinking about the Social WorldCLPS 1783 Nudge: Social Psychology for Social

ChangeCLPS 1900 Research Design and Methods 1One Approved Laboratory Course, such as: 1

CLPS 1180A Canine BehaviorCLPS 1191 Animal Behavior LaboratoryCLPS 1193 Laboratory in Genes and Behavior

CLPS 1290 Laboratory in Cognitive ProcessesCLPS 1490 Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging:

Theory and PracticeCLPS 1492 Computational Cognitive NeuroscienceCLPS 1510 Auditory Perception LaboratoryCLPS 1590 Visualizing VisionCLPS 1690 Laboratory in Developmental PsychologyCLPS 1791 Laboratory in Social CognitionCLPS 1890 Laboratory in Psycholinguistics

Four Approved Science Courses, such as: 4BIOL 0200 The Foundation of Living SystemsBIOL 0800 Principles of PhysiologyCHEM 0350 Organic ChemistryCSCI 1430 Computer VisionCSCI 1950F Introduction to Machine LearningENGN 1220 NeuroengineeringMATH 0100 Introductory Calculus, Part IINEUR 1030 Neural SystemsNEUR 1040 Introduction to NeurogeneticsPHYS 0030 Basic Physics A

Total Credits 171

For the current list of approved courses in all categories, see theCLPS Psychology page.

Psychology 3

Psychology 3

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